SNOW ADVICE

from Channel 4 snowmails

The Attorney General speaks
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Lord Goldsmith has finally broken his silence over the legality of the war on Iraq for the first time since Channel 4 News forced its publication in the last week of the General election campaign. We have of course been seeking to speak to the Attorney General about his legal advice - day after day after day we have been requesting an interview with him. But day after day after day comes the response, no thanks.

Today though he has spoken - in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. And there's one thing he said there that caught my eye. Until today it's always been the Attorney General's position that what was set out in his Parliamentary answer on 17th may 2003 was a summary of his legal advice - indeed, the position was that the answer was the only summary of his legal advice. But hang on - today he tells the Telegraph it wasn't a summary at all. Just to be clear about this, here's the quotes:

On November 6th 3003 (Hansard) he says of that written answer: "This was a summary of the legal position… rather than a detailed consideration of the legal issues"

And today he tells the Daily Telegraph: "I never said it was a summary. But it was a correct statement of my conclusion".

The issue about whether this was or was not a summary of the legal advice goes to the very heart of Lord Goldmith's role in issuing an advice with which practically the entire UK legal establishment disagreed.

It goes to the heart of whether he changed his mind radically in the space of ten days for no apparent legal reason; and it goes to the heart of whether Downing Street leant on him to change his advice.

(Doubtless Lord Goldsmith will want to listen to the Telegraph's tape of his interview, as he did with his session for Lord Butler's inquiry when the confidential transcript appeared to show that his final legal advice had been put together by Mr Blair's political advisor Sally Morgan and his then sentencing minister, Lord Falconer. That was then rejected when the tape of his Butler interview was said to have been checked and found to have been transcribed in error. Incidentally we have requested Lord Butler's tape under the Freedom of Information Act.)

Britain's leading academic expert on UK governance, Professor Peter Hennesey, damned Lord Goldsmith for what he castigated as his weakness and failure of integrity. In the Telegraph interview Lord Goldsmith has clearly been stung by the criticism and clearly wants people to take his words at face value. As the quotes above show, we are in the position tonight of having him question the Parliamentary record of his own view on his legal advice.

Naturally we have asked him to talk to us and clarify matters.

He has declined.

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